Winter is here and it's the seasons for steaming cups of cocoa and...peeling, dry skin and lips. =( This is the part of the season that I dread. Especially dry lips. Why do dry lips always feel more tight and painful than dry skin? Because lips are mucous membranes, so they have thin surface layers of skin that are more vulnerable to dehydration. Research has shown that lips lose up to ten times more moisture than face and body, developing tiny bleeding splits and cracks…not pretty.
My go-to lip balm has always been cherry Chapstick. I stashed several tubes all around my room, purse, car...etc. But lately, my lips no longer respond to it. It has gotten even colder around my town and my lips are in dire need of some top-notch lips TLC. I know that many people have raved about the wonders of Carmex, so I went out to the store to pick up a tube and applied some right when I got back into my car. Five minutes later, I got home and looked in the mirror and almost screamed at what I saw. My lips went from full and pink to thin and white! What happened! I got straight to Googling about Carmex and saw that it has ingredients that are known to be extremely drying: camphor, eucalyptus, and menthol. Those are the ingredients that give balm the “fresh, minty taste.” Also, anything that ends with –ol is an alcohol, and that is the last thing you want to put on your lips. Instead, look for soothing ingredients like petrolatum, castor oil, shea butter, sunflower seed oil, hyaluronic acid, sodium PCA, and glycerin. Something I have done lately is mixing together honey and Vaseline and applying it to my lips for about 30 minutes a couple times a day, since honey has amazing moisturizing properties. Here are some of favorite beneficial lip balms:
Burt's Beeswax
Nivea A Kiss of Moisture
The Body Shop Shea Lip Care Stick
C.O Bigelow My Favorite Lip Balm
C.O. Bigelow Rose Salve
Posted by Janaina on January 06, 2012 at 08:57 PM EST #
Posted by Coral on January 08, 2012 at 11:11 PM EST #
Posted by Lara on January 09, 2012 at 04:07 PM EST #
Posted by kimbob on January 28, 2012 at 09:41 PM EST #